


i'll be yours (and you'll be mine)

by afire



Category: Girl Meets World
Genre: F/F, it spiralled like everything else in my life always does, this spiralled
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-13
Updated: 2017-05-13
Packaged: 2018-10-30 23:40:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,328
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10887321
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afire/pseuds/afire
Summary: A transfer student from Ireland sheds some new light on the girls' rings.(or: Riley is clueless and Maya is hopelessly in love, what's new?)





	i'll be yours (and you'll be mine)

**Author's Note:**

> "Can you please do a fic about a new student questioning the girls if they are married especially based on their rings and it's suddenly revealed that Maya knows the exact meaning of the rings since she researched her heritage but she was never ready to reveal that she knew and everyone is surprised that she is aware but she goes''i was the one with the identity crisis'' but Riley is still clueless and doesn't understand the codes everyone is talking in."
> 
> Sorry I didn't include the identity crisis line, it just didn't fit, but I hope I got the general gist of it! Special thanks to my friend Katie, my cool as heck beta, who's name I borrowed and is actually Irish, she told me about the ring and I perused the Wiki page as well for more detailed information.
> 
> Enjoy!

"Peaches, guess what?"

Maya pauses, turning from her locker with one hand still stuck inside. "They're serving tater tots in the cafeteria?"

Riley pouts, and the explosion of butterflies in Maya's stomach is entirely because she is hungry and excited for tater tots. That's it.

"There's a new girl! She transferred from Ireland!"

"Really?" She has to admit, she's a little intrigued. Maya knows she's of Irish descent, but she _did_ grow up in New York, and so did her mother, neither of them have even been to Ireland.

"Yeah! We totally have to make friends with her!"

Maya turns back and picks a notebook out of her locker, but she's smiling as she does so. "Whatever you want."

 

**&.**

 

As it turns out, the new girl finds them before they can find her. It's lunch time, and Maya has a tray full of tater tots that she's intending to consume at an alarming rate, and she's making her way over to the table that Riley and the rest of their friends are sitting at when someone steps in front of her.

Maya jerks backwards, careful not to drop her tots, and is prepared to apologize when whoever knocked into her beats her to it.

"Oh! Sorry, I wasn't watching where I was going."

"It's fine," Maya says, blinking at her. She's got this newbie look about her, made evident by the fact that she's casting her eyes around in search of an empty table and studiously trying to avoid eye contact with Maya. "Hey, why don't you come sit with us? Riley would really like to get to know you."

"I- alright."

They both make their way over to a table in the far corner, and Maya slides into place next to Riley, pretending to be mad when her best friend steals a tot off her plate. Riley just smiles sweetly at her and Maya sighs, pushing the tray into the middle of the both of them so they can share.

"Hey everyone, this is the new girl, uh- sorry I didn't get your name."

The new girl takes a second before replying, "Kate, my name's Kate, but my friends in Ireland used to just call me Katie."

Riley extends her hand almost immediately. "Nice to meet you, Katie! I'm Riley, and this is Maya, Farkle, Zay, and Smackle."

Maya, chewing on three tots, simply waves her own hand in greeting, deciding that talking with her mouth full is not the best course of action here.

Katie's shaking Riley's hand, and she pauses suddenly, eyes lighting up. "Hey! You have one of those rings! I don't know what they're called but lots of people in Ireland have them." She glances around, catching sight of the matching ring on Maya's finger. "Aww, you guys have a pair."

Maya can feel her face heating up, because of course the Irish girl would know the significance of the ring. A quick glance at Riley's confused smile tells her that her best friend has no idea what Katie is talking about, and she decides there's no harm in discussing it in more detail.

"Yeah, we're really close," Maya says, deliberately being vague, and she can see that Farkle catches on almost immediately. He was always a smart boy.

Riley beams from her seat, because evidently, a conversation like this is something that she's familiar with. Maya finds it endlessly adorable, but also endlessly agonizing, that her best friend can talk about their relationship forever but still remain clueless about Maya's true feelings.

Katie's still grinning at the rings, evidently enamored with the fact that they're apparently together and very happy. Maya likes her a bit more because of that.

"My grandma always told me the hands represent friendship, the heart's for love, and the crown's for-"

"Loyalty, yeah, I think they're cool."

Katie looks up in surprise and Maya has to hide a bashful grin. "I'm from Ireland, on my mother's side. I looked all this stuff up when we had to do a project on our pasts."

"Maya Hart? Doing research? Never thought I'd see the day." Farkle pipes up, and Maya narrows her eyes at him.

He raises his hands in surrender, glancing over at Riley for a moment before grinning. Maya knows he knows about these rings too, probably a great deal more than she does, and she braces herself for his next words, but all Farkle says is: "It's sweet."

Maya blushes and she's momentarily silent. Riley takes this opportunity to join the conversation. "Why'd you never tell me what they meant before? I thought they were just pretty rings."

There's a second of air before Maya sighs, deciding that, really, there's no harm in explaining herself, at least part of herself, anyway. "I wasn't- well I guess you could say I wasn't ready to tell you about it, and I was just lucky you didn't look them up yourself."

Riley frowns, lifting her hand to look at the ring sitting on her fourth finger. "What do you mean? Friendship, love, and loyalty, right? That's just us."

"Well, yeah, you're right. I guess I just-" Maya takes a breath, because she honestly feels like she's ready to tell Riley how she feels, but doesn't want to do it in front of an audience. She's just about to bite the bullet and just come clean but the bell rings as soon as she opens her mouth, and she stands up immediately, grabbing her tray.

"Tell you about it later, bay window," she says, bending to kiss Riley on the head before heading over to put her tray in the collection trolleys.

 

**&.**

  
"Alright! Bay window time!"

Riley flops down onto one of the cushioned seats and Maya settles next to her, albeit at a slower, less dramatic pace.

"Tell me about the rings now!"

Maya stands up immediately, but she turns around and smiles, wordlessly telling Riley that she's not running from the conversation. Her best friend blinks confusedly at her, and Maya starts pacing. She tends to move around a lot when she's nervous. "So, I didn't- I didn't tell you about what the rings meant before because I was ... afraid, I guess, that they would mean different things to us."

"Friendship, love, and loyalty? How do they mean different things?"

"I- well, you see- it just-"

"Peaches."

Riley's looking at her with kind eyes and a soft smile and Maya sighs, running her hands through her hair, aware that she's making it even more of a mess than it already is. "I didn't tell you before because, well, in Ireland, these," she raises her left hand and smiles crookedly, "are commonly used as engagement rings."

"Oh."

Riley's a lot of things, but she is nothing if not intelligent. Maya knows she's understood. What she doesn't know is what's going to happen now.

"Peaches."

"Yeah?"

"Sit down, please."

Maya hesitates for a fraction of a second before she slowly sinks down onto the bay window seat next to Riley. "Is there a reason-?"

"So I can do this."

Riley leans in and Maya's heart stops, then starts up again, beating an erratic rhythm against her ribcage. She's never actually allowed herself to even think of this outcome, and now her best friend — or are they something more now? — is kissing her.

It's soft and warm and too brief. Riley's pulling back before Maya even has a chance to get her bearings, the only semi-coherent thought in her brain right now is that Riley tastes like honey and spring and all things good in the world.

Maya exhales. "Oh."

Riley huffs softly, and the look she's giving Maya right now is so open and vulnerable and shy that Maya can't help but lean in again, kissing her once, quickly, to confirm that they're on the same page.

"This doesn't mean that we're engaged, I still want a big romantic proposal," Riley says suddenly, and Maya laughs and laughs and laughs.

**Author's Note:**

> Listen to me, I know I should be working on that multichap that I haven't updated since the universe began, I assure you that I am. It's going to be significantly longer than the previous chapters because, well, I have a planning paper full of dotpoints and I fully intended for five dotpoints to be featured in the last chapter. However, as I am oft to do, I wrote way too much and ended up with only two dotpoints when I hit the limit.
> 
> I now realize that there is no True Limit and this is my fic goddamnit so I'm going to squeeze everything that didn't go in the last chapter and everything that's supposed to go in this one together. We'll see how well this goes, I will update you on the situation soon.
> 
> Toodles, always remember that you can find me on my [Tumblr](http://hartthews.co.vu) if you ever want to chat.


End file.
